


BECAUSE GOD IS A CAPABLE MATHEMATICIAN WHEN IT COMES TO REMORSE

by sandyk



Category: Criminal Minds, NCIS
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-07-19
Updated: 2009-07-19
Packaged: 2017-11-28 17:38:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,050
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/677072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sandyk/pseuds/sandyk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ziva smiles back because she has her weapons arranged and because she is already planning how to get JJ’s underwear off. Possibly with her teeth, she thinks.</p>
            </blockquote>





	BECAUSE GOD IS A CAPABLE MATHEMATICIAN WHEN IT COMES TO REMORSE

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to templemarker and circusgirl for beta awesome! Not mine, owned by large corporate entities. No profit garnered, not by me. Title from a poem by Sean Michaels.

"Today I took your Metro. The one I rode was very … orange. Carpet, seats, everything very orange. I did not like the color choice," Ziva says. She pulls her sweater off and lets it land where it will go. She is now onto the complicated task of removing her weapons and lining them up for access near the bed. JJ has only the one gun, and she seems to take it off the minute she walks in her own door. Ziva notes that they grew up in very different places, even though they now work similar jobs.

"They didn’t hire the best decorators, I guess. Still better than most of Quantico. Better than parts of your office, too, I bet," JJ says. Ziva does not answer. JJ is very nearly naked on the bed, smiling. Ziva smiles back because she has her weapons arranged and because she is already planning how to get JJ’s underwear off. Possibly with her teeth, she thinks.

JJ says, "That took you thirty seconds, are you tired today?" Ziva can tell she is joking.

"No," Ziva says. She was until she knocked on the door and JJ answered, but to say that would make things more complicated.

Ziva is concerned that Gibbs must not know because Gibbs hates the FBI, except for Fornell. And including Fornell, she thinks. She does not completely understand. She repeats that phrase in her head often these days. Does not completely understand NCIS. Does not completely understand McGee and Abby and Dr. Mallard or the changes in Jenny. Tony she is pretty sure she completely understands. More than he does himself, not that that is saying much.

She absolutely does not completely understand Gibbs. And she will never completely understand her father or Ari. It makes her stop and think and mourn and a host of things she would greatly prefer not to do.

Instead she has her version of therapy and adaptation to living in the States: sleeping with a beautiful woman. She suspects her beautiful woman is using her for her own version of therapy and making things better, but she does not ask for details. These are complications again.

"Hello," JJ says. "Again. Stop concentrating so much."

JJ is stay-inside-and-never-see-the-sun-work-too-hard-pale but she is not ashamed of being naked. She never turns off the light. These are all things Ziva likes. She is always happy to show her appreciation for all of JJ’s wonderful qualities.

She also likes that JJ is very loud when she comes.

Then Ziva watches JJ walking to the bathroom and listens to the shower. She is feeling so relaxed she can almost remember Ari laughing and joking with her and the expression on his face when he died. She sits up and thinks instead about how this relationship is unlikely to last. Ziva knows it will not last.

She is okay with that, as Tony would certainly say. Unlike Tony, she means it. JJ is too busy and her job is very demanding. So they have now. Now is pretty good, she thinks, also as Tony would say.

JJ walks back into the bedroom, smelling of soap and nothing flowery. Ziva also likes that. She likes many, many things about JJ. "Why don’t you have anything that smells like lavender or vanilla or jasmine?"

JJ drapes her towel on a chair by the bed and Ziva momentarily forgets she asked a question.

"You know, you could give a girl a complex. It’s like you don’t think I’m attractive or something," JJ says, pulling on her underwear.

"I do think you’re attractive," Ziva says quickly.

"I know," JJ says. "You’re like Wiley Coyote with the bugged out eyes over there. I was kidding. And I don’t have anything that smells too feminine because, well, it was a case. You don’t want to know."

Ziva says, "I could take it."

JJ now pulls on a pair of drawstring pants. There is a flower on the butt on the pocket, the only cute thing JJ seems to own. Probably the pants were a gift. JJ puts on a t-shirt from her American high school. It is very faded.

She says, "Yes, but you don’t have to." Then she walks out of the bedroom and Ziva thinks this is her signal to leave. It does not bother her. She is significantly less tense than she was two hours ago; her therapy is accomplished for tonight.

She dresses while listening to JJ hum badly, pour a glass of water and then turn on that TV channel that sells things. Ziva can hear a woman with a very thick accent talking about tiny figurines that are apparently beautiful and handcrafted.

Ziva tucks her knife in her boot and comes out. On the TV there are plates with pictures of houses. Mansions, she thinks. She says, "What did the figurines look like?"

JJ covers her mouth and laughs. "You need some Precious Moments figurines for your apartment?"

"I wanted to know what they looked like."

"Nothing you would like," JJ says. "I mean, they’re little kids with these big eyes being precious."

"Maybe I would l buy some for my colleagues. It would be fun to see them thanking me for them, if they are so humorous to you." Ziva says, "Did you bring your work home again?"

JJ puts away some of the files she has pulled out. "Are you calling this home now? I thought last week you said my home was my office."

"You do spend all your time there."

"Right back atcha," JJ says. Ziva thinks she does understand that phrase. JJ glances at the files she has put away and then changes the channel to the one which only shows soap operas.

Ziva looked at the files JJ had with her only once. Even with all she had seen, it was too much.

Someone JJ had known, an agent she was at the Academy with, Ziva thinks, had died two months ago. It was very hard on her. It had happened in Boston. And still she carries home more files and looks at all them. She says no to some. And Ziva goes to work at NCIS and does her job. This is what they do. And what they will continue to do.

THE END  



End file.
